


Deep In The Heart

by piqueon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: "The Ranch AU", Alternate Universe - College/University, And I Mean Slow Burn, Golf Carts, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Texan Keith (Voltron), Texas - Freeform, listen it's.. it's a wild ride
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 18:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9916175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piqueon/pseuds/piqueon
Summary: Lance needs money, Keith needs a sense of purpose in life, where better to find it all than on a ranch in Texan hill country?(Basically an AU where the whole gang works on a ranch in Texas for a summer. Shenanigans ensue.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> this entire fic.. started off with me just joking around with the idea... and then it got out of hand. and here we are now. 
> 
>  
> 
> ALSO SHOUT OUT TO JEAN FOR SAVING MY LIFE AND BEING MY BETA. THIS FIC WOULD BE A MESS WITHOUT YOU.

“So, you guys think Texas is real? Seems like a myth if you ask me. Kansas as well.” 

Pidge and Hunk ignored Lance, knowing he would drag them into his distracted state. Despite her trying to stay undistracted, Pidge was reminded of something. She pulled out her phone, shifting her focus away from the physics textbook and typed quickly. Lance gave up on trying to get their attention and turned back to his work with a sigh. They were sitting at a table outside of the university library, enjoying smoothies in the warm California sun. 

“Lance, didn’t you mention that you and Hunk needed to get jobs over the summer?” Pidge asked, but focused on her phone. Lance looked up from his notebook and hummed nonchalantly. 

“Yah I think so, honestly I kinda forgot about that. What about it?” 

“Well, I think I found us really well-paying jobs for the entire summer. Like the entire summer. May through September.” 

“Wait, really? What’s the catch? There has to be a catch. Do I give up my kidney or something?” Lance was baffled at the idea of having a secure job for the entire summer job, so he immediately questioned Pidge’s offer. 

“Well, as long as you’re ok with going outside of state and the heat, then you should be fine.” Pidge dropped casually, but held an underlying smugness in her voice. 

Hunk sighed, “Pidge, how exactly did you get this job offer? Please tell me this isn’t something illegal— “ 

“Hunk, I assure you this is 100% legal. It isn’t like last time, I promise. My brother actually got us the offer. That’s why I said that the job is out of state in the first place. You guys know that Matt lives in Texas, so obviously that’s where the job is gonna be.” Pidge went silent as she focused on her phone again, typing a message to someone. 

Lance and Hunk watched her intently, waiting for her to elaborate. Pidge raised an eyebrow before deciding to continue the explanation. 

“Well, he brought up how we needed jobs for the summer to his friend, Shiro. You guys remember him, right? He visited a couple months back, remember? The ping pong guy?” Lance and Hunk nodded immediately in reply, looking somewhat shaken by the memory. 

“Ok, good. Well, he mentioned how he’s been staying at a ranch recently outside of the city to record proper data on a certain star that he’s researching for his newest paper. Apparently the owner of the place told him that she would be willing to hire a couple of people to help around the ranch.” Pidge explained. Lance and Hunk looked skeptical at the idea of helping on a ranch. 

“That sounds great and all but… a ranch? Would we really be of any help at all? Like I haven’t seen a cow in my entire life and I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of culture shock.” Lance crossed his arms and stared Pidge down.

“Ok, calm down, drama queen. The ranch isn’t a stereotypical ranch or farm or whatever weird idea you have. It’s more of a bed and breakfast sort of place, kinda like an Airbnb. There’s no livestock or crops and stuff. People just go there for vacations or rent out one of the houses on the property, and the owner uses the space to keep her horses or to practice polo.” Lance and Hunk looked immensely more comfortable with the idea of this job after the assurance that it wasn’t going to require background knowledge of farms and other strange country stuff. 

“Well… I guess we do really need money…” Hunk mumbled. Lance nodded in agreement. The two boys turned to each other and made eye contact, having a conversation without even opening their mouths, instead just making various expressions. Pidge couldn’t even complain; it was too much fun to watch from the outside. After about 45 seconds, they seem to reach a conclusion to their conversation and turn back to Pidge. 

“Alright, we’ll do it. Yee-fucking-haw.” Lance announced and Pidge immediately unlocked her phone again. 

“Well, that’s great, because my brother was just asking for an answer.” 

Pidge typed out the response to Matt and hit send. She looked back up at Hunk and Lance and smirked. 

“We’re going to Texas, boys.” 

 

***

 

“Keith, I need to talk to you.” 

Keith flipped idly through an old magazine while lying on his twin bed, facing towards the wall. He grunted in reply to his older brother. 

Shiro sighed, sitting on the edge of Keith’s bed. This subtle action dropped the hint that they were probably going to be talking for a long time, so Keith instantly prepared himself for a lecture from his older brother. 

“So, I was thinking about how you needed a job over the summer, and I think I have just the thing.” 

“And?” Keith’s eyes glanced away from the magazine for a millisecond before training on it again, acting nonchalant about the conversation.

“Well, like I’ve said many times, the ranch I’ve been staying at is really nice. And recently Allura been worrying about leaving Coran to care for the ranch on his own constantly whenever she has polo competitions… I suggested that maybe she hire some other people to help out, told her I could probably get her a couple of people that would be willing to do it for money.” Shiro trailed off and looked towards Keith, implying that he was one of said people that would do it. 

“And you thought I would want to do this… because?” Keith defiantly kept his eyes on the magazine

“Well, I know that you need a job since you quit your other one and I thought that this would be a good opportunity.” Shiro stared at the wall while explaining himself to Keith. When he finished, he looked back to Keith and saw him looking at him, unimpressed and clearly not falling for his fib. Shiro sighed, knowing he was a bad liar and couldn’t trick his brother. 

Shiro rubbed his temples, “Listen Keith, your gap year is almost up, and you need to start thinking about what you want to do. I’m sorry to be so frank about it, but you can’t put it off forever. You’ve been working several different jobs for the past year, which is great and everything, but you need to really think about your future.” 

Keith pinched his eyebrows and glared at Shiro. Shiro’s shoulders dropped, giving Keith a look filled with pity. Keith hated it. 

“I thought that changing your environment would help you out. Either way, I know you need another job. Just think of it as that.” Shiro tried to assure Keith, but it was in vain. Keith didn’t respond except with a series of unintelligible grumbles.

Shiro stood up and made his way to the door before turning back to Keith. “I suggest you start packing. I plan on leaving in a week, and we’re going to be gone for a long time,” Shiro advised and left Keith’s room, shutting the door behind him. 

After he heard Shiro’s footsteps fade away, Keith sat up and looked over at his door. He fell back on to his bed and sighed. 

“It’s almost summer. I didn’t notice.” He ruminated out loud. The only response he got was the steady whirring of his fan. 

 

***

 

As Pidge, Hunk and Lance descended the escalator, they spotted Shiro waiting in the crowd by the baggage claim. Pidge waved him over and he beamed back at her, excited to see their familiar faces in Austin. 

Lance yawned. The 4-hour flight that left San Francisco at 8 am, which was far too early for anyone in their trio. Now it was after 2 pm in Austin, but Lance and the rest of the gang felt like they just woke up, still blinking the sleep out of their eyes.

They got their bags off the conveyer belts and made their way out of the airport through the automatic doors. Shiro dug the keys to the car out of his pocket and unlocked it, revealing its location in the parking lot. It wasn’t actually a car, but an old van that had definitely seen better days. 

“I CALL SHOTGUN,” Lance somehow mustered the energy to yell, and sprinted to the van before anyone else could react. Shiro watched on with the exhaustion of a single father, and it had only been ten minutes. 

Hunk moaned in anguish, “Lanceeeee. You do that every time. It’s not fair, man, I’m barely awake right now.” Hunk followed after Lance, not even bothering to run, knowing that he could not change Lance’s mind on who got shotgun.

Hunk and Pidge sat in the back of the van, which was considerably spacious, much to their appreciation. Lance, meanwhile, sat smugly in the front with Shiro, fully aware that he would be controlling the music the whole ride. Once as everyone was settled in, Lance broke the silence. 

“Well, we all know what this calls for.” Lance snatched the aux cord, plugging in his phone and selecting a song. 

The strumming of a banjo from the intro of “Daddy Lessons” by Beyoncé started to play at full blast through the speakers. Pidge and Hunk groaned. This was going to be a long ride. 

 

***

 

The old van pushed up a steep gravel road that seemed to barely cling to the slope of the hill that the road resided on. There were various ranches to the right and a river was visible through thick trees at the bottom of the hill. They eventually reached a sturdy, metal gate off to the right, adjacent to walls of stone on either side that looked like they stretched for miles. Shiro rolled down the window and reached out, punching a code into a keypad on the side of the gate. A long, monotonous beep rang out before the gate parted, revealing a second road of gravel that led them to the property. The whole property seemed to have a slant of sorts to it, since it resided on the top of a hillside. 

As Shiro steered the rickety van up the road, Lance rolled down the window and stuck his head out, feeling the warm air against his skin. Pidge and Hunk in the backseat took after him and did the same, getting a feel for the air after the three-hour car drive. There was nothing beautiful about the miserably hot summer in Texas, but it definitely felt better than the stale air in the car. Not to mention it was much more bearable when it was flying past at 30 meters per second. 

Lance observed his surroundings, taking in how the grassy slope on the right of the road was scattered with various small houses. He saw two old ladies sitting on the porch of one of the houses, smiling at them as they drove by. He looked ahead where the van was headed and saw what appeared to be the largest house on the estate on the left. 

The van pulled up beside a pickup truck and parked next to it. Pidge was the first to pull open the van’s sliding door, stumbling out on to the gravel with stiff legs from the seemingly infinite car ride. Hunk got out after her, stretching his arms over his head with a sigh of relief. 

“Christ on a bike it’s hot,” Lance whined as he exited the stuffy car, only to be greeted with the heat of May in Texas. 

“Well get used to it, kiddo, because it’s only May. Just you wait ‘till August. Don’t worry too much though, cause even I can agree it’s pretty hot at the moment for May. Rain might help it cool off a little.” Shiro gave Lance a reassuring pat on the back before walking ahead with him. Lance slung his backpack over his shoulder and sighed, grabbing the rest of his bags before following after him. 

The group was walking towards the largest house when they heard the rhythmic trotting of a horse slowly approach them from behind. Shiro paused and turned towards the sound, and a bright smile slowly stretched across his face. 

“Good morning, Allura.” Shiro greeted. Lance looked over his shoulder and immediately thought, _‘Yep that’s it, Texas is fake. I knew it.’_ when he saw what looked like the most graceful being to ever walk the Earth approach them on the back of a beautiful horse that matched its rider perfectly. 

“Good morning Shiro!” The women beamed back at Shiro before looking over the other teens next to him. She gave them a soft smile before taking off her helmet and dismounting the cremello horse, walking towards them.

The woman in front of them was dressed in a polo player outfit and stood as tall as Shiro. Her bright blue eyes stood out beautifully against her rich, dark skin. And despite the fact that she had just had a helmet on, her hair in a low ponytail looked flawless, cascading in platinum waves down her back. 

“And you all must be the new helpers that will be here for the summer! Thank you so much for coming all the way out here, we’ve been in dire need of some help around here. I’m Allura, the owner of this ranch, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” she properly greeted them, holding out her hand for each of them to shake. 

Hunk, ever the diplomat, immediately took it into his hands to reply properly to their new boss, “The pleasure is ours, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to work. Me and Lance especially need money now that we’re in university.” 

“Of course, we’ve been needing extra hands around here anyways.” Allura noticed how Pidge’s eyes were trained on the elegant horse next to Allura. 

“You must be Pidge! You look quite similar to your brother, Matt. I’ve seen him in pictures with Shiro.” Allura noted as Shiro looked mildly embarrassed when the trio’s eyes darted to his profile. 

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Pidge chuckled. “Also if you don’t mind me asking, what’s the horse’s name?”

“Oh! This is Nyma. She’s one of my polo ponies. You’ll be seeing quite a lot of her during your stay on the ranch, except for when I take her with me to competitions. We often let her roam on her own, so more often than not you’ll find her wandering around.” As they walked, Allura told them more about Nyma’s behavior, including how she apparently befriended a raccoon that Allura casually named Rolo. Allura also explained that the large house was the main house where Allura lived. 

Allura led her horse to a stable off to the right of the dirt road, near a long, single story house. She pulled open the wooden door, revealing a dim stable with three spacious stalls. Even though Allura only had Nyma out with her, only one of the three stalls was currently occupied. The horse in the stall whinnied as it saw Allura with Nyma opening the doors. The horse had a beautiful freckled coat of grey spots against white. Allura introduced said horse as Juni, which was short for Juniberry. The trio didn’t question what a juniberry was, figuring that it was just one of the millions of weird Texas plants. 

When Allura noticed that the second stall was empty, she looked around in mild confusion. 

“Hmm... I guess Keith took Lux out for a bit.” Lance titled his head in confusion until he vaguely remembered Shiro off handedly mentioning that his little brother, who apparently was the same age as him and Hunk, would be working with them this summer. 

Another set of footsteps approached the stable, and the group turned towards the sound. A man with dark hair and pale skin paused at the stable doors, riding a sleek, black horse without stirrups. Both his hair and eyes perfectly matched the horse he was currently riding, just like the way that Nyma and Allura matched in beauty. But unlike Allura, he wasn’t wearing a polo outfit and instead was dressed in a regular gray t-shirt and jeans. 

“There you are Keith; I was wondering where Lux was.” Allura greeted him softly. Keith only nodded in reply, currently focused on the three strangers that looked out of place next to her. 

“Keith, this is Hunk, Lance and Pidge. These are the kids that I said would be working with us on the farm for this summer. Hunk, Lance and Pidge, this is Keith, my younger brother.” Shiro introduced them to one another, secretly hoping that the California trio wouldn’t scare off Keith, or vice versa. A quick silence settled in as the trio studied Keith, until: 

“Is it a law in Texas to introduce yourself on a horse?” 

Everyone’s eyes were trained on Lance the second the question left his mouth. 

Keith shifted his gaze to Lance. He raised an eyebrow at him as everyone else remained silent, to baffled by the entire interaction to interfere.

“Y’ain’t from around here, are you?” Keith remarked.

“Oh my god Hunk he said ‘y’ain’t’” Pidge whispered under her breath. 

“He doesn’t actually have a Texan accent though.” Hunk whispered back. Keith glanced over at Pidge and Hunk when he heard them murmuring. After noticing Keith’s gaze on them, Pidge and Hunk immediately quieted.

Lance smirked in response to Keith’s question, “Yah, definitely not. More of a coast kinda guy. But you already know that.” Lance held his gaze with Keith, when he suddenly broke eye contact. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you guys.” Keith mumbled. He jumped off Lux and pulled him away from the group to his respective stall. Lance watched after Keith as he led Lux away with a hand on the stallion’s back, gently guiding him into his stall. Shiro sighed at Keith’s less than perfect introduction. 

Lance shrugged and muttered, “Not the talkative kind, I guess.” 

 

***

 

“You guys will be staying in the chicken coop with Keith!” Allura beamed at them, completely unaware of the horror on the trio’s face. Lance especially looked spooked by the notion of staying with chickens, his eyebrows climbing his face like a tree. 

She walked past them towards the long house they passed earlier. The cabin-building faced the main house was constructed of sandstone and had a large, dark brown iron door. There were small windows near the roof of the house, but they were too far up to actually look into from the outside.

“W-wait, I’m sorry Allura I don’t mean to be rude but I— Oh.” Lance’s rambling died down the minute that Allura opened the heavy iron door of the chicken coop, revealing a nice lounge with a couch, TV, and a small bar with what appeared to be a coffeemaker on the counter. 

Allura turned and blinked at Lance, “Is something wrong? Please don’t hesitate to— Wait. You thought I actually meant a chicken coop. Sorry for causing your worry, it’s just a nickname for this place.” She giggled and let the trio take in the living room of the house. 

The lounge had an earthy feel to it, with various shades of brown and deep reds. The couch was a dark brown with light brown and red blankets draped over the back. There was a ping-pong table, a proper shuffleboard and even a foosball table placed throughout the wide area. The trio looked on, mesmerized by the entire set up. 

“We usually use the chicken coop as somewhat of a game room for guests whenever there are large groups of people staying on the ranch, but it also has bedrooms and more couches to the right.” Allura guided them through another set of iron doors that separated the second section of the house from the game area. The second area they were lead to was another, much smaller lounge area that was surrounded by four separate rooms. The lounge area was scattered with various bean bags and thick blankets, and had a low, round table in the middle. 

“Keith is already staying in one of the rooms, but the other three are free. There is a bathroom in the main area and in this area, and both of them have showers that are fully functional, I promise.” Allura smiled and turned towards them, watching all of their expressions to make sure they had no issues with the rooming. 

“Wow… This is so nice… thank you so much. Honestly thank you so much for providing us a place to stay while we work here.” Hunk sincerely gave her their gratitude. 

“Of course, you don’t have to keep thanking me. Well then, I can tell that all of you are tired after the flight, so I’ll let you have time to yourselves and get settled into your rooms. Oh, and we will be having dinner together in the main house around 7, so show up, please?” Allura threw them a casual smile before turning and walking out of the chicken coop. 

 

***

 

After moving all of their bags into their rooms, unpacking and taking quick cat naps, the teenagers walked across the concrete road to the main house. 

When they reached the main house, Lance knocked on the screen door and paused, waiting for a sign of Allura. Instead, he heard a different voice from the kitchen yell ‘just a minute’. After a few seconds, a man with bright orange hair and a wild moustache to match showed up at the door and let them in. 

“You all must be the new recruits I’ve been hearing about! It’ll be great to be having someone help me out of the farm other than Keith, especially with those dang Galra kids…” He rambled off for a second about things that the group didn’t understand at all before recollecting himself.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Coran! I’m Allura’s uncle and part-time polo coach, but I’m usually the one that stays here whenever she has competitions. Come in, come in, I’ve almost finished dinner!” Coran hurried the teens inside before quickly shutting the door and rushing back into the kitchen. 

“Go ahead and take a seat at the table! I’ll have all the food out in a second.” Coran busied himself with preparing dinner while the others headed over to the table where they spotted Shiro, sitting in a rocking chair like the old man he was. 

“Hey guys, nice to see y’all alive and breathing again.” Shiro remarked smugly, not noticing the way that Lance’s eyebrows once again astral projected off of his face after hearing the forbidden word ‘y’all.’ Lance seemed to be the only one to pick up on this, since Shiro, despite technically being a Texan, did not usually talk like one at all. 

From the kitchen, Lance heard the sound of the screen door falling shut and a pair of footsteps approach the table. 

“Good evening, Keith! Go ahead and wait with the rest at the table.” Coran greeted Keith, the apparent owner of the footsteps and gave him a small push towards the others.

“Thanks, Coran.” Keith chuckled and walked over to the table, taking a seat next to Shiro. He stayed silent while Lance and the others chattered about the how decked out the chicken coop was with game tables and which they should play first. Shiro glanced at Keith, hoping he would take initiative to join the conversation, but he remained as silent as ever. 

“And here we go! Eat up, kiddos!” Coran exclaimed, setting down a large platter filled to the brim with brisket. Afterwards, he brought in other dishes with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans. After a long day of travelling, Lance and the others were very hungry and started to serve themselves. They kept chatting as they served themselves.

“So, have you used the shuffleboard yet, Keith?” Hunk asked him, smiling at him while serving himself mashed potatoes. 

It took a couple of seconds for Keith to register that the question was directed at him and that the others were expecting an answer from him. He’s used to people just immediately accepting that he’s quiet and moving on with the conversation.

“Uh, Well, I guess a couple of times but there hasn’t really been anyone to, well, you know, play with.” Keith answered somewhat sheepishly. He thought his answer was awkward and poorly worded, but when he looked up he was greeted with the others smiling at him.

“Then we should play a game at one point! Of course, when we’re not working.” Hunk reminded himself and the others that they actually were here for a job and not just vacation. 

Keith gave a small smile and nodded, directing his attention back to his food. The conversation continued smoothly, and Keith felt included even though he wasn’t adding to it. He was simply listening. 

“But really, I’ve only seen like, the road out there and the stable. Like how big is this place?” Lance questioned, waving his spoon around like it was a part of his arm. 

Shiro directed his eyes back to Keith, seeing him begin to recede to his shell again, and immediately piped up.

“Tomorrow I’m sure Keith will give you all a proper tour of the entire ranch! He’s been here for about a month and half and he knows this place like the back of his hand now.” Shiro said, smile stretched across his face knowing very well that his brother’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. Keith opened his mouth to do _anything_ to make sure that plan did not play out, but Shiro kicked his calf under the table, effectively distracting him long enough for the others to reply.

“That would be great, dude! I really don’t want to get lost around here.” Lance chuckled, hands behind his head while he made eye contact. 

Keith only nodded in reply and quickly looked away. Lance frowned.

“I think I need to go check on the horses. Thank you for dinner, Coran.” Keith mumbled, standing up and taking his plate over and placing it on the counter before exiting the house.

“What’s up with him? Did I do something wrong?” Lance turned to Shiro, looking unsettled. 

Shiro sighed, “No, you’re fine. I’m sorry, he’s just… he takes a while to warm up to people. He’ll come around eventually I promise.” Shiro smiled wearily. _Or at least I hope he will._

***

 

They woke up the next day at 8:30 am, much to the trio’s chagrin. They were jetlagged, since San Francisco is 2 hours behind, so they felt like it was 6:30 am, which is far too early to function.

They walked outside to the spot where Allura told them to meet her to get an introduction to their respective jobs.

Lance spotted Allura standing on the other side of the concrete court, and Keith lingering behind her. He caught Keith’s gaze and smiled, only to have Keith immediately look away, just like last night. Lance sported another frown. 

“I swear he hates me.” Lance sulked, getting the attention of his two friends.

“I’m sure he doesn’t, Lance. He’s just a little shy. Even Shiro said so.” Hunk reassured him, knowing very well how Lance jumps to conclusions. 

“Yah, not everyone is social butterfly like you, Lance. Remember how I was at the beginning of this year?” Pidge said it like she was being sarcastic, but she truly cared about how her friend felt. 

Lance nodded, still eyeing Keith from across the court. They walked up to Allura, prepared for whatever she made them do. 

“Good morning! From today, you all will be employees of the Altea Ranch.” Allura smiled at the three and locked her hands together. “I would give you your jobs, but you all have yet to see the rest of the ranch. So before I give you your tasks, Keith will give you guys a tour.” She gently nudged Keith forward. The others looked at him expectantly.

He sighed lightly, “Well, I would start with the stable first, but you guys have already seen it. Follow me.” 

Keith walked in the direction of the stable, but instead stopped in the middle of the road and turned to the left. The road overlooked a steep hill covered in grass and wildflowers in full bloom. To the right of the grassy area was an area packed densely with bamboo, giving it a weird tropical vibe that stood out starkly against the rest of the ranch.

“That over there is bamboo forest, as we call it. It’s kinda weird, I know. But Allura’s dad apparently was a big fan of bamboo and wanted to make his ranch different from the others. It’s pretty hard to walk through, so I suggest not walking straight through it. You can find a small path on the other side that goes around it. Allura might make us cut the bamboo back eventually, since it spreads like a wildfire during the summer.” Keith explained, going into autopilot as he described the environment he has been exploring for the past months. 

The others blinked, not sure whether to be surprised at the sight of bamboo in the middle of the hill country or how Keith just talked for over a minute. Keith turned to them, unaware of their mild shock. He tilted his head, “Questions?” 

The others shook their heads and they continued up the gravel road that curved to the right. They walked in a comfortable silence for a moment, with only the sound of rocks crunching under boots to be heard. Keith stopped again after they passed the bamboo forest and looked back over the left edge again. 

“That over there is what we call the lake. Not the most creative name, but it works. Also, fair warning, the dock is pretty old so I suggest not actually standing on it.” Keith rambled. 

Lance and the others stared in awe at the large, serene lake that stood a bright blue against the green of the grass and bamboo and the brown shades of mud and gravel. It glistened in the sunlight. It wasn’t huge lake per se, but it definitely wowed the Californians, who were lost as to why an entire lake was needed on a ranch. They weren’t complaining though; they knew very well that they would be thankful to be near a body of water when it got even hotter. 

They continued to trek up the gravel pathway, curving more sharply than before to the right around the small hill. 

“The hill we’re walking around to our right is what we call the pasture, since we usually let the horses graze there throughout the day. We aren’t super strict about where the horses go, as long as they aren’t disturbing the guests. They’re usually well behaved though.” Keith immediately jumped to defend the horses.

“You like those horses, don’t you?” Pidge chuckled, watching Keith lightly blush and cross his arms like a child. 

“So what if I do?” Keith muttered, still pouting. Seeing Keith show an emotion rather than apathy was astounding to the others, even if it wasn’t necessarily a positive one. 

“Hey, don’t worry, I was only joking.” Pidge giggled and patted Keith’s arm. Keith jumped at the contact, but quickly recovered. He hoped the others didn’t notice his surprise.

Luckily, Lance diverted the others attention. “Woah! Are these the guest houses?” He jogged towards the small cottages that lined a second that connected the smaller gravel road to the main road by the chicken coop. The cottages were cute and quaint, looking like they could each house a room or two and a small kitchen. 

“Yeah, we already have a few guests that are staying here. More guests arrive usually later into the summer, thankfully. 

“Oh my god they’re adorable.” Hunk whispered, adoring the small little houses that littered the sides of the road. He had his hands close to his chest and his eyes basically sparkled: an iconic Hunk pose. 

Keith waited for the others to finish gawking at the miniature houses before continuing the tour. 

“The smaller road you see that goes uphill for a bit is kinda empty to be honest. All there is up there is the shed and the pond.” Keith still went ahead and lead the up the smallest street they’ve encountered so far. 

The shed, as Keith called it, looked more house size than shed size at first glance. It looked like it could have two stories, but it was obviously run down with pieces of wood splintering and small holes in the walls. There was a single window that looked like it hadn’t been dusted in years, contrasting greatly with the rest of the ranch, which was kept in near perfect condition, as far as they could see. The shed’s height made up for its length and width, in fact it was probably barely wide enough to be the same size as the kitchen in the main house. 

Overgrown weeds scattered the perimeter of the shed and grew wildly until what was likely the edge of the property. The back edge of the property was strange and somewhat hard to tell if it was man-made or natural. There were large stones that created a tall wall that one could probably climb over, but a black fence was obviously set up to avoid that. 

“You probably won’t really need to come back here, unless Allura decides to make us finally clean this place up since there are more workers around.” Keith turned and walked to the other side of the small street. 

When he reached the other side, a small path could be seen up close. It was created with pieces of slate and rock that led through tall, dark grass and grand oak trees. It was hard to spot where exactly Keith was leading them to, but he obviously knew where he was going. 

Finally, he stopped and moved out of the way so that the others could leave the path. Before them was a large, rectangular arbor with a small, circular pond in the middle. There were a couple of koi circling in the pond. Vines grew naturally on the planks of the arbor, making the whole area well shaded and a haven from the sweltering sun. The area around the pond was covered with slate and had metal, rusting chairs and benches scattered throughout. There was a second ledge that was a step lower than the rest, also made out of dark slate. It was somewhat useless in a utilitarian way, but people would usually just sit on it and watch over the ranch.

“This is what we call the pond and the overlook. For, well, obvious reasons.” Keith gave up on trying to explain names and left it up to them. 

The others were too busy admiring the view to really bother with questioning the names, though. Even Pidge had a newfound appreciation for the outdoors because of the overlook. From the ledge, they could see most of the ranch. Directly below them was another grassy, steep hill that followed the houses to the concrete road. On the left, they could see the sandstone wall that separated the ranch from the neighboring property. They could even see into the neighboring ranch from the overlook. 

Keith stepped onto the second ledge and paused, looking over the property for a second before jumping down onto the hill. He turned back to them, signaling them to follow him down the hill. 

“That’s about it, I think. If you have any questions, just ask me or Coran. Usually Allura is kinda busy during the day, but you can also ask her.” Keith casually remarked as he descended the hill. 

His eyes shifted to the left before suddenly stopping and walking towards the 8-foot stone wall to the left. The others watched him in confusion as he squatted down and picked something up. In his hand was an empty, crushed can of Miller Light. He grimaced at the smell of day-old, shitty alcohol before chucking it over barrier and flipping it off. The others watched on in awe. 

He brushed his hands together and turned back to see the trio watching him with wide eyes.

“Fucking Galras.” Keith elaborated, almost expecting that to be enough of an explanation. Their expressions showed that clearly they weren’t getting it. 

“What’s a Galra? I heard Coran say that earlier.” Lance pondered, waiting expectantly for Keith to give him answers. 

“The Galra is the family that owns the neighboring property. Honestly, I doubt there are even parents there. It’s just a bunch of white kids that do nothing but party. They’re pretty quiet throughout the day, but at night they can get kinda rowdy. Sometimes they’re just kinda loud, other times they throw shit in our yard. One time a guy even crawled over the wall. We still have no idea why he did it, but he did it anyways. They’re like frat boys, but even worse.” Keith explained, looking pissed at just having to acknowledge their presence. 

“Yikes.” Pidge helpfully added. 

“Yikes indeed.” 

 

***

 

“Alright, now that you all have had a tour of the ranch, you can get to work! First of all, I heard that you guys are engineers, or at least like to fix stuff?” Allura asked Pidge and Hunk, looking for confirmation. 

“Well, I’m better with techier stuff like programming things and such, but I can still do some building. Hunk is the true master of building; aren’t you buddy?” Pidge turned to Hunk and smirked. 

“I sure am.” He said proudly and smiled back at her. “I can work with anything from metal to wood, and I can also work with electronics.” Allura looked positively ecstatic at the revelation that Hunk was a quality mechanic. 

“That’s great to hear, Hunk. We need to fix up quite a lot of things around the farm, so your help will definitely be needed. Pidge can help you out as well, since she said she also does some building stuff,” Allura directed and turned to Lance, seeing if he would add.

“I’m sorry Allura, I would say I’m an engineer but then if you held me to it your ranch would probably go up in flames.” Lance shrugged, seeing no point in lying about his abilities. It just wasn’t his thing. He preferred the theoretical and vast, thank you very much. 

Allura laughed, “Don’t worry, either way I’m sure Hunk and Pidge will be more than enough people to fix the stuff up around here, considering how brilliant the two of them are.” Pidge and Hunk blushed lightly at her compliment.

“Instead, I’ll have you helping out Keith with most of the regular labor, like feeding the horses and delivering mail and stuff to the guests.” Allura chimed. Lance and Keith mirrored each other, side-eyeing the other with a raised eyebrow. 

“Hunk, Pidge, follow me! I’ll show you which gate I need you to fix first. Keith, go show Lance how to properly groom the horses and feed them.” Allura instructed, beckoning Hunk and Pidge to come with her. 

Allura walked off with Hunk and Pidge trailing behind her, waving to Keith and Lance as they left. Lance waved after them with a smile on his face and turned to Keith.

Keith noticed him waiting for his instructions and sighed, “Well, I guess I’ll show you the ropes. We’ll start with feeding the horses, so we’re gonna need to move the hay out to the pasture.” Keith explained, gesturing with his hands to a small shed on the side of the stable. 

There were large, cylindrical hay bundles stacked on top of each other in the shed. Keith picked one up with both arms and handed it to Lance, who staggered with it, unsure of how exactly to handle it. Keith followed after him with another bundle. They placed the bundles in different spots in the pasture area. 

Keith brushed off his hands and walked back over Lance. “We don’t just feed them hay by the way. We’ll probably be feeding them something else today. And they really like sugar cubes, so those are like treats for them.” Keith explained eagerly. _God this boy loves horses,_ Lance thought. 

“Ok, now we need to go grab the buckets, follow me.” Keith led him back to the shed and handed him a bucket. Grabbing another bucket, Keith directed Lance to the water faucet beside the shed. 

As they waited to fill up the buckets, Lance questioned, “Hey, by the way, why do we need two buckets of water? Shouldn’t one be enough if we refill it later?” Keith looked up at him, making eye contact with him for the first time on his own. It caught Lance off guard.

“Well, there is Kaltenecker, so we keep a bucket in the far part of the pasture just in case she’s too lazy to walk over.” Keith moved the filled bucket out of the way and placed the second one under the faucet. 

“Kaltenecker? Is she another horse? I don’t remember Allura mentioning her.” 

“Well, Kaltenecker is actually a cow. I know we said that we don’t keep livestock, but she’s not really livestock. She just kinda showed up one day in the pasture, we still have no idea how she got in. Kaltenecker doesn’t do any harm, so they just accepted her as part of the family. At least that’s what Allura told me.” Keith shrugged, turning off the faucet after the second bucket was filled. 

“Alright, you take this one and I’ll take the other. Take it over to Kaltenecker’s spot over at the edge over there, maybe you’ll see her.” Keith heaved the bucket up by the handles, nodding his head in Lance’s direction, telling him to do the same. Lance grabbed the bucket and pulled it up, his arms immediately shaking a bit with exertion. He let out a low whine, already knowing his arms would ache for the rest of the day.

Keith smirked at him. “Aw, poor string bean. Never have to do physical labor, do you, coast boy?” Keith smugly commented on Lance’s struggle with the filled bucket. Lance glared in his direction.

“Who are you calling string bean, string bean?” Lance retorted, looking mildly prideful of his comeback. 

“But you don’t see me struggling, do you?” Keith threw him another confident grin and walked ahead of him, proving his point. Lance exhaled, frustrated and dying to prove himself. But Lance couldn’t really feel his anger, and instead found himself thinking, _‘a smile looks good on him’._

“I’ll show you!” Lance called after him and rushed to catch up without spilling the water. 

 

***

 

In the end, Lance and Keith were both soaked after unsuccessfully trying to race with the wide buckets. Now they were both standing outside the stable with their hands on their knees, trying to catch their breath. They were both smiling though, and the water kept them from being miserable in the sun. 

Keith shakily exhaled, “Well, I guess we should let Nyma and Lux out first. Nyma always gets antsy after being cooped in the stable for too long. We’ll groom Juni first.” He straightened out and opened the door to the stable. 

Nyma neighed eagerly at Keith, ready to leave her stall. Keith smiled fondly and cooed at her, “Don’t worry, Nyma. You’re going out now. You too, Lux.” 

Keith led the two horses out of the stable and let the roam around the pasture. He returned to the stable where Lance was standing by the door. 

“Ok, time to groom Juni. Also, you’re doing it. You have to learn eventually.” Keith passed Lance to Juni’s stall and opened the door. She let out an affectionate huff at seeing Keith. Lance skittishly followed after Keith, still unsure of how to deal with a horse. 

Keith passed him a flat brush with dense bristles on it. “Just go along her back with long strokes. And don’t put too much pressure.” Keith guided Lance’s hand in smooth caresses down Juni’s back. Lance hear Juni exhale calmly, relaxed by their ministrations. Keith released Lance’s hand after a couple of seconds, figuring he got the hang of it. Lance, meanwhile, had a look of childish excitement on his face.

Keith lightly smiled at his expression, understanding how fun it was to positively interact with animals. Lance turned to him, wide smile still stretching to his eyes. His expression changed though when he noted Keith’s look, changing to something far more mischievous.

“What are you smiling about, mullet?” Lance teased, raising an eyebrow. 

Keith recoiled and quickly wiped the smile off of his face, “Nothing.” Lance knew he was lying, but didn’t push and instead redirected his attention to grooming Juni. 

“Wait, mullet?!” Keith yelped after processing Lance’s nickname. Lance snickered quietly and acted innocent and continued brushing the horse.

 

***

 

The day went on somewhat uneventfully after that, just more moving things around and caring for the horses. They joined Hunk and Pidge for lunch, catching up on what they were doing. After that, they went back to their respective chores. Lance went off exploring with Pidge and Hunk. He had offered for Keith to come along, but Keith said he had something else to do and that they should go on without him. A lie. Shiro would’ve lectured him, if he was around. Now Keith found himself lying on the hill by the bamboo forest, relaxing after completing all his tasks. 

While enjoying the breeze on the hill, he reflected on how the day had gone. While he felt exhausted at having to interact so much, Keith felt an odd sense of satisfaction in his chest. It was a nice feeling, despite the fatigue. _Maybe this summer would be good. Maybe._ Keith thought to himself, as his eyes closed and he was lulled into a slumber by the rustling of the trees.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!! this chapter was mainly set up, so the shenanigans REALLY begin next time. 
> 
>  
> 
> tumblr: texankeith.tumblr.com


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